News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-07-07
BRIDES OF THE MAD KING.
Tragic Ending of n Strange Mania
Among the Maidens of Bavaria.

A Paris letter to the Chicago Tribune
says: A curious feminine mania is call
ed to mind by the recent tragic ncws
from Munich. Two young ladies of that
| city-BarOnesses-have committed sui
eide by drowning in the Starnberg Lake,
at the very spot where the mad King
Louis drowned himself last year. The
names of these ladies are familiar to all
who have been admitted to the best
Munich society. They were sisters, aged
twenty-three and twenty-six, and were
famed for their beauty. Their family is
Il very noble and wealthy one The
mania to which they fell victims had its
origin fifteen or sixteen years ago. The
young King was then at the height of
his romantic fame. His ideally hand
some likeness was to be seen everywhere,
and everywhere you heard talk of his
poetic melancholy his romantic spirit
and confirmed celibacy. Naturally he
became an object of intense interest to
sentimental young ladies. Presently,
among the other absurd tales that were
told of him, there went abroad the story
that he spent most of his time in wan
dering about his kingdom in disguise.
He haunted shady lanes and romantic
spots, seeking for some fair maiden who
should be his chosen bride. Well, this
silly tale was believed and set thousands
of hearts to fiuttering. Each maiden
wondered if she would be his choice if
he CHANGED to meet her under the lime
trees. And she hesitated to plight her
troth to her village lover until she should
have had d chance to meet the King.
S,1 I FIur To hot 1Id
of Bertoldshofen, in the romantic noun
tain region of Southern Bavaria, the
maidens formed themselves into a sort
of sistethood. They pledged them
selves to each other not to marry until
they were sure the King had passed
them by: Each was to wear his likeness
constantly next her bosom; and each was
to choose for herself secret bower
where at evening she should await his
coming. A more foolish scheme, prob
ably, never was devised by the silly
brains of love-sick school girls. But
more than a score of Bertoldshofen mai
dens entered into it with the zeal and
devotion of nuns. The fame of this
sisterhood spread to other villages, to
towns and cities-nay, to Munich itself.
Rustic wenches and the petted beauties
Of prineely palaces alike caught the mad
disease. Within year not less than
10000 young women, all through Bava-
ria, had taken upon themselves the
''vows of Ludwig and were waiting for
their King.
In time many of these girls imagined
they had been seen and passed by by
the King, and, thus freed from their
VOWS, accepted humber husbands. 9th
ers tired of waiting and broke their
VOWS. Still others waited and waited in |
vain, until all other sultOrs had passed |
them by; and they are waiting still and
will be waiting all their lives. But as
the ranks of the original sisterhoods |
were thinned new recruits were added |
and the "brides of Ludwig" were still
counted by thousands. 1t is estimated |
that there were no less than 1000 of |
them at the time of his suicide. When
the news of that tragedy became known
they put on mourning and called them
selves ''the widows of Ludwig" Many
of them took solemn VOWS of lifelong
celibacy as token of faithfulness to his
memory. Among these latter two of the
most devoted were the young Baronesses
of Munich to whom we have referred
They constantly wore the deepest mourn
ing, sssluded themselves from all social |
pleasures and drove themselves into
confirmed melancholy. Every week
they went to Starnberg and threw gar
lands of flowers into the water at the
spot where the King was drowned.
Finally they determined to share his
fate. They arrayed themselves as brides,
even to donning wells and orange bios
SONS, rowed out into the lake to the spot
where he was drowned and threw them
selves into the water. Their bodies were
found the next day clasped in each
others arms and with portraits of the
mad King next their hearts.